Returning to Reims

This one did not quite click with me, but I still liked that I read it. It follows a young gay man growing up in rural France in a working class conservative family, and it has everything you would expect from the premise; his confrontation with his family and their unapproval of him and his alienation from them, his hopes and dreams and struggles to achieve them, his coming of age and finding his place in a society and people like him.

The main thing I can criticize is the middle of the book. It is a pretty long description of French politics in his youth and his prolonged thoughts about it. It is interesting at first to see how politics breathe in another country, but this goes on for far too long and in too much detail.

The book is written pretty cold-headed and objective, sterile almost, which was very surprising and interesting in some way and also annoying. It feels empty without some descriptions of his inner self after living such youth and after so many slaps in the face, maybe I am again jealous at someones peace of mind.... Oh well.

Cheers.